Well, tomorrow is the big day. Things are beginning to happen. The piles of boxes are stacking up, the shelves are emptying, stuff is getting tallied. The Kodan inspector was just in a few minutes ago, tallying up the damage–he figures about ¥33,000, less than $300. However, all of my big furniture is still here, and they must know that some damage will not be apparent until the place empties. That puzzled me, why they would send the inspector over before I emptied the place out. I probably saved a lot of money that way. Though I have to wonder, if they find extra damage after all my stuff has moved out (I know he missed a few things, but I kept mum–am I bad?) will they charge that? I don’t know–after all, the guy signed forms and everything, including the paperwork to refund my deposit. And since this is a government operation, maybe they won’t do anything. We’ll see. At least he didn’t charge me as much as they’d warned me for losing my third room key.

…and I’m not finished yet.

But the big hit for me today will be the loss of my air conditioners. Though I move tomorrow, a person is coming over today to uninstall the air conditioning units. And that’s a big thing for me. You see, I tend to perspire quite a bit; it runs in the family, on the male side. I especially start to sweat a lot when I exert myself, like if I am cleaning my apartment out. So when a lot of the big work gets done tonight and tomorrow morning, I am going to get drenched. Fortunately, the water is still running, so I can shower off OK. But tonight I’ll have to turn off the fridge in preparation for shipping it off (it’s going to the faculty office at my school), which means no cold drinks unless I run down to the convenience store (there’s not even a vending machine closer than the conbini). So no cool air, no cool drinks tomorrow morning. How will I survive? I guess I’ll have to make do with the electric fan and rough it out.

Update: I got a reprieve. They told me that they’d uninstall the A/Cs in the a.m. today–but at 11:30am, there was no call and no show, so I called the moving company. They said that the person would arrive just before noon, and that the uninstall would take an hour. Maybe I’m unreasonable, but an 11:50-12:50 visit is not what I would technically call an “a.m.” visit. I have to go to work, and allowed for a 15-30 minute window after noon, but not a whole hour. They said that the person would come tomorrow instead–which is much nicer for me in any case. One more day of coolness! I won’t have to do my last day’s packing in the heat, thank goodness.